Food prices are high in the community of about 930 people in the Northwest Territories with supplies flown in from Inuvik, a town of about 3,200 people, during the summer months.

The new highway is also expected to bring more tourists and open up the region in the longer term for the development of natural resources, including currently untapped natural gas fields.

The idea for an all-weather road first came about in the 1960s but it took decades for the plan to come to fruition as various governments studied the project and completed environmental assessments and consultations.

Engineers also had to address the challenges of building a road on complex terrain and protecting the permafrost, the perennially frozen subsoil. It also has to withstand extreme weather.

Construction of the highway began four years ago.

There will also be a permafrost monitoring network long the highway that will be used for global permafrost and climate change research.

An official motorcade made the roughly three-hour journey from Inuvik to Tuk on Wednesday to mark its opening.

Image copyrightBBC/Google EarthImage caption
The new road runs all the way to the Arctic Ocean